Abstract

STEYN, Linda  and  BARNARD, Antoni. The coaching experience as identity work: Reflective metaphors. SA j. ind. Psychol. [online]. 2024, vol.50, n.1, pp.1-12. ISSN 2071-0763.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v50i0.2132.

ORIENTATION: Coaching facilitates identity work, and metaphors are often used in coaching to make sense of the self. RESEARCH PURPOSE: To explore coaching clients' coaching experience as expressed through metaphors, from an identity work perspective. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: The use of metaphor in coaching has not been realised, and coaching as a vehicle for identity work is underexplored. RESEARCH APPROACH/DESIGN AND METHOD: A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and qualitative design directed the study. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven clients who had participated in a coaching programme. Reflective metaphors from the interviews constituted the data set, which was analysed through hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. MAIN FINDINGS: Guided by identity theory, four themes were co-constructed from the data, which describe how coaching develops a self-processing competence reflected in these iterative cycles: (1) self-exploration and self-reflection; (2) self-awareness and self-insight; (3) self-acceptance and self-determination; and (4) self-actualisation and self-transcendence. These cycles of identity work align with transactional and transformational identity work to enable construction of an independent and interdependent self. PRACTICAL/MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings highlight the value of metaphors as a self-reflective sensemaking tool. Coaching is aligned with integrated transactional and transformational identity work, which can be used to assess the transformational value of coaching as a process. CONTRIBUTION/VALUE-ADD: The study describes the personal transformational value of coaching through metaphors, and it establishes identity work as a key process outcome of successful coaching. The findings offer a novel conceptualisation of transactional and transformational identity work as a process perspective to effective coaching.

Keywords : coaching; identity theory; identity work; metaphor; sensemaking; transformation; hermeneutic phenomenological analysis.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )